Your Questions

Q

Bernard, As so often heard, "God is in the details," and your details bring us to a living moment in a time and space long forgotten. We are about your characters who have taken breath and are one of us. Is there a sequel to Sword Song? The end seemed so in in the air. Thank you. Charlotte Adams

My middle daughter and I have throughly enjoyed the Saxon books. Do you have an idea of when the next of the series will be published? Stan Faries

when is the next 'saxon stories' book coming out?? by the way if your ever in Maryland I'm part of a Viking re-enactment group that has 2 Longships and we would love to have you on board. www.longshipco.org.. Adrian Kraus

I trust you will publish a conclusion to the Saxon Stories? I've read the the first four and look forward to reading the final book. Regards, Stuart Twitchell

Hi, I live in Brazil and I really like your books. I'd like to know if you have a prevision to release the book 5 of Saxon stories?
Milena

Mr. Cornwell, I am sorry if I have not looked hard enough, but I can not seem to find out if you are currently working on another book for The Saxon Series or if there is a date to when one might be expected. I really have enjoyed your books and hope to read more in the near future. Thank you for your time.
Matthew Hudson

I very much enjoy your books, particularly the Warlord Trilogy. It helps to explain to me as an Englishman, why the Welsh hate us so much! I am looking forward to the next Saxon book and wondered when this will happen?
Ray Gore

Dear Mr. Cornwell, I am writing to inquire if you will be writing anymore books in The Saxon Stories? I am a fan from the US and just recently started reading your books. I have completed the Saxon series and now started the Arthur series. Really enjoy your books and look forward to many more. Thank you. Best regards, Raymond Rajan

Hello Mr. Cornwell. In the last weeks I have read all four books in "The Saxon Stories" series, and I really liked the stories about Uhtred. When will the next book arrive? Best regards Bjorn Ljones

I am thoroughly enjoying your Alfred series about Uhtred. Will there be more books to further expand Uhtred's adventurers?
Chip Jackson

Bernard when is the next Saxon book due out and please do not kill off Steppa

Paul Marriott

Hello Bernard, I was wondering whether there were any plans in the making to continue the Uhtred story at all? I have recently read all 4 books and am champing at the bit to see what happens next. Many thanks, Paul.

Submitted March 3, 2009

A

I am working on the fifth book of the Saxon stories now. I hope to have it ready for publication in the UK in October of this year; most likely a January 2010 publication in the US.

Q

Just finished "Agincourt". As with all your books, it was pleasure and a thrill to read. Great fun! I have a brief comment/question/aside: it seems to me the French did not change tactics between Agincourt and Napoleon. The use of the battles seemed to me eerily similar to the use of the columns during the Napoleonic Wars. 3 shots a minute or 12 flights a minute, the result was the same: a great many dead Frenchman. Is the any validity to that comparison? Anyway, God bless the Brits! I would hate to be speaking French. Cheers!

Mark Bigham

Submitted March 3, 2009

A

They weren't quite that foolish! Truly, by Agincourt, the French had learned to avoid set battles because of the damage they knew archers could do. That they fought Agincourt at all was probably because 1) they were in such overwhelming numbers that they felt the odds were on their side, and 2) because the young royal dukes who were (messily) in command overrode the advice of the French Marshal and Constable. As for the column -it worked superbly well against just about every French enemy; but failed against the superior musketry of the British army. They learned to adapt to that too, by deploying into line at the last moment (as at Waterloo), though the adaptation never had time to be refined into a workable solution.

Q

dear Mr. Cornwell in Harlequin when they attacked la Roche Derrien were fire arrows discovered by then or not till later?
Mitchell Taylor

Submitted March 3, 2009

A

I imagine fire-arrows were discovered in the mists of pre-history - way way way before the middle ages!

Q

Hello, Mr. Cornwell, I have an odd question. Probably the Engineer in me. I am starting to write my first book. My first chapter fit on one page. Realizing this would be a 10 page book, I went back to square one and expanded the first chapter to 30 pages. I was curious, on a average, how many words do you write a day? I have had to develop a scene in my mind, develop the dialog, and then write. I keep Sharpe's rifles by my computer. It helps to read a few pages to get me going. My wife likes my book so far but wonders if their would be an audience for it. I tell her, "Who thought their would be an audience for a British soldier in the 19th century." Anyway keep the books coming.

Scott Wendt

Submitted March 3, 2009

A

How many words a day? Depends on the day! I always write something, and I suppose the absolute minimum is 1500 and the maximum is somewhere in the 5000 area . . . I really don't know, because I don't count the words each day . . . I just add them up when a chapter is finished. But remember the old advice - a page a day and you've written a book in a year!

Q

Mr. Cornwell, I recently finished and loved Azincourt (I hate that the anglicized title has been forced upon us in the U.S.). I was wondering, since it was never addressed in the novel, whether Nick was actually speaking with the Saints or whether he was just 'hearing voices' (as in mentally ill), or did you even consider this; just curious. I eagerly await volume 5 of the Saxon Chronicles. Best, Billy Stewart

Submitted February 27, 2009

A

I suspect he hears his own voice and ascribes it to the supernatural.

Q

I thoroughly enjoyed Azincourt, but am intrigued to know what sort of food the army ate while on the move? Did they have people in charge of cooking food, or did their wives do it, and did they mainly eat raw food, or hunt game?
Mrs. Joan Baxter

Submitted February 27, 2009

A

I don't suppose there was much game to be had - though certainly they hunted it (any self-respecting deer would flee a mile at the approach of several thousand horsemen). The basic supplies were bread (or flour that could be baked into flat-bread on stones), salted meat and salted fish. They were mostly countrymen, so I'm sure they knew how to scavenge for wild food in season - though too many ate unripe fruit which led to some unsanitary horrors.

Q

Hello Mr Cornwell, have just finished Sharpe's Fortress. A friend in Hangzhou said it was your only book in stock so I told her to grab it. Overall what I enjoyed was the pace of the book. Where did you get Captain Torrance from? I sure I worked with him in the corporate world. I wonder if the fortress Gawilghur will be rebuilt and become a tourist hotel? If they have nice hotels why not? You say Mr William Dodd was a renegade fugitive from the East India company but with hindsight the East India company was a group of nasty renegades. They and their families became wealthy on the lives of thousands . Nazis who won? Hope to have Azincourt soon. Regards Nicholas.

Submitted February 27, 2009

A

I don't remember the source of Captain Torrance, sorry. I'm really not sure that EIC was as bad as the Nazis, in fact I'm certain they were not. They weren't necessarily nice people, they were actuated by extraordinary commercial greed and a ruthless disregard for political niceties, but in that they were no different from other folk at the time. You think the Mahrattas were nice people by our standards? It's easy to judge people in the past by contemporary moral standards, but it isn't a fair judgement or, I think, a useful one.

Q

Hi Mr Cornwell my Dad is a HUGE fan of the Sharpe books, He doesn't read an awful lot but he has read all of the Sharpe series. I was wondering if there would be any new Sharpe adventures in the near future? Thanks Jo Deighton.

Submitted February 27, 2009

A

Please tell Dad there will be more Sharpe books - but not for a least another two years.

Q

Hi, My dad has recently passed Azincourt to me, as I recommendation that I might enjoy it. And Enjoying it I am. Not really being one for tales, I normally prefer biographies, but this has me gripped! Just wondered how long it takes to write a book like this, which is steeped in historical facts?

Mark

Submitted February 27, 2009

A

Usually takes me about six months to write a book.

Q

Hi Mr. Cornwell. I noticed there is a gap of over a year (July 1809 - August 1810) between Sharpe's Eagle and Sharpe's Gold. Any chance of a novel to fill this gap? Perhaps the action of the River Coa on July 24 1810? How about "Sharpe's Bridge" as a title? Alan Kempner

Submitted February 27, 2009

A

I really don't want to turn Sharpe's clock back again - I got into a horrible mess with the new books because they weren't written in order. Maybe a short story one day? Maybe . . .